JEFFERSON 



3129 



JEFFERSON 



short time before his death he charmed play- 

 goers by a masterly presentation in the title 

 role in A Poor Relation. No other man in 

 his profession was more honored, but he 



was never fully contented, for he had longed 

 to become a great painter; and devoted as he 



was to his art, he felt that the other art was 



higher. 



Declaration of 

 Independence 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



EFFERSON, THOMAS (1743-1826), an 

 American patriot, diplomat and statesman, 

 principal author of the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence and the third President of the United 

 States. Shortly before his death Jefferson 

 wrote the following inscription to be placed 

 over his grave: 



"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of 

 the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute 

 of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and. Father 

 of the University of Virginia." 



This epitaph, he felt, expressed his claims to 

 fame. The judgment of posterity has added 

 a fourth claim, the purchase of Louisiana Ter- 

 ritory from France. 



His deeds may justify his fame, but they do 

 not explain the veneration in which his name 

 is yet held, and was held even in his lifetime, 

 by the people of the United States. It has 

 been said, and said foruly, that most of Alex- 

 ander Hamilton's views are reflected in the 

 form of the American government, but that 

 Jefferson's spirit has given them life. Jefferson 

 took from the crumbling governments of the 

 colonies and from the French Revolution the 

 lesson that governments derive their strength 

 from the consent of the governed. His system 

 of political philosophy was based on individu- 

 alism, which led to liberty in politics as in 

 religion. His ideas were in line with American 

 tendencies. The educated -men of the colonies, 

 the men who became the leaders of the new 

 nation, were aristocrats, and with scarcely an 

 exception they demanded a strong, centralized 

 government and distrusted the people, most of 

 whom were, indeed, uneducated. Almost alone 

 of the leaders who helped to establish the gov- 

 ernment of the United States, Jefferson had a 

 deep and unfaltering trust in the people, and 



the people in turn have made him the idol of 

 American democracy. 



Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, 

 Albemarle County, Va., on April 2, 1743. His 

 father, Peter Jefferson, was a man of promi- 

 nence in the community, and at various times 

 was county surveyor, justice of the peace, and 

 member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. 

 Though Peter Jefferson owned slaves and an 

 estate of nearly 2,000 acres, he did not belong 

 to the Virginia aristocracy. His family had 

 been well known in Western Virginia for over 

 a hundred years, but had never tried to live 

 in the easy, luxurious style of the great 

 planters. In politics Peter Jefferson was a 

 Whig, and in society he was thoroughly demo- 

 cratic. This liberal democrat married Jane 

 Randolph, a member of one of Virginia's aristo- 

 cratic families, and their eldest son was Thomas 

 Jefferson. 



The boy Thomas grew up strong and 

 healthy, with a fondness for hunting and other 

 outdoor sports, and to the end of his life 

 thoroughbred horses were apparently neces- 

 sary to his happiness. At the same time he 

 inherited from his father an inclination for 

 politics, literature and mathematics. He sang 

 and danced well, and even as a boy became 

 an excellent violinist. In spite of all these in- 

 terests he did not neglect his studies. At 

 seventeen he entered the College of William 

 and Mary, then the foremost institution in 

 the South; and at twenty, when he was gradu- 

 ated, he carried away a working knowledge of 

 Latin, Greek and French and a familiarity 

 with natural science and mathematics which 

 was extraordinary for one so young. After he 

 left college he added Spanish, Italian and 

 Anglo-Saxon to his accomplishments, and 



